Dr Zahid Naz, Ph.D., SFHEA, PGCE, DELTA, CELTA

Profile

Dr. Zahid Naz is a senior lecturer in Academic and Professional Education at Queen Mary, University of London. Prior to this he worked in Further and Higher Education in various teaching and management positions for 15 years. He has taught internationally on pre-service and in-service Teacher Education programmes. His research interests concern Complexity, Foucauldian discourse analysis and discursive practices in post compulsory education.

Postgraduate Teaching

EAL7213: Research Methods in Language Teaching.

EAL7214: Assessment in English Language Teaching.

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests concern Complexity, Foucauldian discourse analysis and discursive practices in post compulsory education.

Publications

Book

Naz, Z. (2024). Politics of Quality Improvement in English Further Education: Policies and Practices.  Cham. Springer.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24008-9    

Articles

Naz, Z., & Beighton, C. (2026). ‘The space that claws and gnaws at us’: deviance and distribution in heterotopic classrooms. Oxford Review of Education, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2026.2632045

Naz, Z., & Beighton, C. (2026). Post-graduate pedagogy in neuroliberal times: affect, governance and volatility in higher education. Critical Studies in Education, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2026.2618237

Naz, Z., & Beighton, C. (2025). The power of taste: Bourdieusian perspectives on the negotiation of policy, practice, and pedagogy. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 49(10), 1400–1416. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2025.2573027 

Beighton, C., & Naz, Z. (2025). Regulating truths, indeterminate practice and ways of being: a biopolitics of Professional Standards in UK Higher Education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2025.2483199 

Naz, Z. (2024). ‘Tick boxes are just tick boxes’: Problematising evidence-based teaching and exploring the space of the possible through a complexity lens. Policy Futures in Education, 23(1), 127-143. https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241240542 (Original work published 2025) 

Naz, Z., & Beighton, C. (2024). Dis/placing teacher identity: performing the ‘brutal forms of formalities’ in English Further Education. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 43(5), 553–567. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2024.2368720

Naz, D., & Beighton, C., (2024). Backyard ethnography: researching the interplay between education policy and teaching practices in a complex workplace. In Sage Research Methods Cases Part 1. SAGE Publications, Ltd., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529684483 

Beighton, C., & Naz, Z. (2023). The calculated management of life and all that jazz: gaming quality assurance practices in English further education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(6), 844–858. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2023.2192907  

Naz, Z. (2021). Analysing neoliberal discourse in Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework (EIF) through a Foucauldian lens. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 75(5), 1033–1054. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2021.1995469  

Opinion Pieces

2025. ‘AI risks undermining the heart of higher education’. Times Higher Education. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/ai-risks-undermining-heart-higher-education

2024 ‘Teacher recruitment and retention: a question of identity?’ Available at: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/expertcomment/teacher-recruitment-and-retention-a-question-of-identity/

2024 ‘UK Higher Education must beware of going too far with privatisation’. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/uk-higher-education-must-beware-going-too-far-privatisation

2024 ‘The employability agenda corrupts educational and personal values’. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/employability-agenda-corrupts-educational-and-personal-values

2023 ‘Under pressure: inspection regimes and the institutionalisation of failure’. Available at: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/expertcomment/under-pressure-inspection-regimes-and-the-institutionalisation-of-failure/

2021 ‘FE’s educational ethos is being overshadowed by market logic’. Available at: https://feweek.co.uk/fes-educational-ethos-is-being-overshadowed-by-market-logic/

2021 Powerful knowledge? Challenging neoliberal trends in FE policy and practice’. Available at: https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/expertcomment/powerful-knowledge-challenging-neoliberal-trends-in-fe-policy-and-practice/

Outputs in progress

Governing the Desire: Power, Paradox and Professionalism in Further Education. British Journal of Sociology of Education

What Counts as a University? Biopolitical Governance of Learning-to-Labour in English Higher Education. Journal of education policy

Public Engagement

Selected conference presentations

2023 “Complexity and transversality in teaching of FE.” 6th International Academic Conference on Education Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

2023 “Foundations for Success in the U. International Baccalaureate | IB Global University Admissions Conference.

2021 “Investigating Quality Assurance Systems in Education : the case of FE”, The 9th European Conference on Education, UCL, Institute of Education, London

2019 “The position of English as Lingua Franca and it implications for English Language Teaching”, EFL Leadership Summit & Education Forum, Higher School of Linguistics, Moscow, Russia

2019 “Sustaining the neoliberal ideology: modes of regulation, control and evaluation in

FE inspection policy’. 13th JVET international conference, 28th – 30th June, Keble College, University of Oxford

2018 “Behind the scene: governmentality reconfigured in FE’. 3rd ARPCE International Conference Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford